In many ways, Mary Magdalen is the most accessible of the female saints, a real human being, unlike the lofty, remote and far too pure and unreal Virgin Mary. Part of her appeal, to be sure, resides in her embodying a fundamental female identity, which may be very ancient. Her principal attribute is the ointment pot or jar. The vessel, however, can also appear as a vase or a monstrance.

An ancient Neo-Sumerian statue shows a woman, perhaps a goddess, holding a jar, or a vase, or a chalice, out of which flows water. Held at waist-level, the vessel appears symbolic of the female vagina and thereby also a metaphor for female sexuality and power.

Its association with the ancient mythic female principle is perhaps one of the clues to the enduring appeal of Mary Magdalen; and it is also the unacknowledged motif around which have been shaped the various myths and legends that have been attached to this woman over the centuries.

The jar, vase, pot, or chalice, is the source of life, but also the source of evil for men.

Jean Cousin, Eve Prima Pandora, c. 1550 (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

The figure in Jean Cousin's painting was based upon a now-lost image of Mary Magdalen. Eve/Pandora/Mary Magdalen reclines nude with one hand on a skull, the other on her jar. A snake, an ancient symbol of the Goddess, entwines her left arm in the way one sees in images of Isis.

The garbled Biblical account of a female follower of Christ barely conceals to the perceptive eye a woman of immense importance.